A magnetic head for writing information on a relatively-moving medium has a pair of substantially flat soft magnetic pole layers separated by a pair of coil layers. A soft magnetic pedestal adjoins the leading pole layer adjacent to a medium-facing surface and is spaced from the second pole layer by a nanoscale nonferromagnetic gap, the pedestal having a layer of high magnetic saturation material that defines a throat height and extends beyond the throat height. A second high magnetic saturation material adjoins the trailing pole layer and either terminates at the throat height to form a second pedestal or extends to reach a magnetic backgap structure that magnetically couples the pole layers. The MR sensor can be located closer than the write transducer to the trailing end of the head to reduce separation between the read transducer and the write transducer.